Bartram v. Ohio & Big Sandy R. R.

132 S.W. 188, 141 Ky. 100, 1910 Ky. LEXIS 423
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedDecember 7, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 132 S.W. 188 (Bartram v. Ohio & Big Sandy R. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bartram v. Ohio & Big Sandy R. R., 132 S.W. 188, 141 Ky. 100, 1910 Ky. LEXIS 423 (Ky. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

[101]*101Opinion op the Court by

Judge O’Rear

Reversing.

January 15, 1891, the Ohio & Big Sandy R. R. Co. instituted a suit in the Lawrence circuit court against S. W. Wooten and others, claiming to own a certain tract of .land and all the timber growing upon it, and certain timber on the land which had been recently cut down. The suit was to recover the timber from the defendants, ■who were asserting title to it. The action was probably in the nature of trespass. It involved the title to the land as well as to the timber described. An injunction was sued out against the defendants restraining them from removing the timber until the court could adjudge the case. Bond was executed to the defendants by the plaintiff. W. II. Bartram had previously bought some of the timber mentioned from some of the defendants who were sued. But Bartram was not included as a party to the action. He went ahead removing the timber, notwithstanding the order of injunction. He was ruled for contempt and punished for disobeying the injunction. He admitted having knowledge of the injunction, but as he. was not sued, and as the writ did not run against him, and as he was not protected by the bond executed in the case, he deemed that he was not affected 'by the proceeding. The circuit court thought otherwise. Thereupon the plaintiff the 0. & B. S. R. R. Co. made him a party defendant and had an order entered requiring him to obey the injunction previously granted. The court allowed the order upon the condition that the plaintiff executed to Bartram a bond indemnifying him against loss or damage because of the injunction if it should be finally adjudged that it should not have been granted. Bartram then stopped moving the logs. But they were laying in the woods and in the creeks, subject to rot, and loss by the floods in the streams. Later, on motion of the plaintiff the court’s receiver was directed to take charge, of the logs and sell them, which'lie did. Finally it was adjudged in the first named case that Bar-tram, and not the Ohio & Big Sandy R. R. Co., was the owner of the logs now in controversy, and the injunction wa's dissolved.

This suit was then brought by Bartram against the principal and surety on the bond to recover the damages sustained by him by reason of the injunction. Plaintiff laid his damage in an aggregate sum, and then specified the constituents, thus:

[102]*102“1. $4,400 difference between the value of the timber when injunction was granted, and the amount subsequently realized from it by the receiver’s sale.
“2. $500 attorneys fees in defending the injunction proceedings.
“3. $300 value of time expended by Bartram in defending the injunction.
“4. $100 non-taxable cost, such as traveling expenses, hotel bills, incurred, etc., in preparation of the case on the trial of the injunction.
“5: $500 taxable cost in the action relative to the injunction. ’ ’

To Bartram’s petition setting up the cause of action the circuit court sustained a demurrer.

The circuit court ruled the plaintiff to paragraph his petition so as to set out in separate paragraphs the several items of alleged damage. Plaintiff complied under protest. Demurrers were then sustained to each paragraph and to the pleading as a whole. Failing further amendment, the petition was dismissed. Hence this appeal.

There was but one cause of action asserted — the breach of the bond. The damages sued for were all recoverable in one action, if at all. Though the several items of damage alleged were distinct features of the plaintiff’s claim of damages they all resulted from the same act. The Code (section 113, subsection 3, Civil Code Pr.) requires each cause of action to be stated in a separate paragraph. But that does not mean that each item constituting a cause of action must be stated in separate paragraphs. (Figg v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 111 Ky. 30; 23 Ky. Law Rep. 383.) However, the decision of the court on the demurrers to the several paragraphs may be taken as rulings on motions to strike out the matter contained in each as irrelevant — which would have been the correct practice had any allegation of particular damage been foreign to the legal criterion in the action, lienee we-will so treat the practice in this case, and adjudge the sufficiency, and relevancy of the allegations stricken out.

The general demurrer to the petition as a whole must have been sustained upon the idea that a cause of action on the bond did not lie, on the 'ground that no injunction actually issued against Bartram, and that as the bond sued on was to indemnify him against loss only in event the injunction issued against him was wrong[103]*103fully obtained and sued out, there was not a breach of the bond unless the injuction was sued out and executed upon the complainant.

The writ of injunction is abolished in this State. In lieu of it, the court, or officer of the court delegated by statute, issues, that is, enters an order in the case restraining the defendant from committing some act alleged and shown or threatened, detrimental to the plaintiff’s rights, or commanding him to do an act which he is refusing to do, and which the plaintiff is entitled to have done. (Sec. 271, Civil Code Practice.) . Notice of the fact that the order has been granted is essential to bind the party against whom it is directed. If he be served with a copy of the order, of course he is notified. Wherefore section 281, Civil Code. If, however, he be given notice of the application for the injunction, it is not necessary to serve upon him a copy of the order when granted. In the language of section 282, Civil Code, “he is bound by the injunction as soon as the bond required of the adverse party is executed.” We are not now concerned with the propriety of the circuit court’s action in holding Bartram bound by the first injunction, before bond was executed to him. But when he was notified of the application by the then plaintiff railroad company to have the order of injunction extended so as to include Mm, he was bound by the order when entered so soon as the bond required by the court was executed. Such was the purpose of the Code, and the practice complies substantially with its requirements.

The effect of the injunction was to stop Bartram. from moving the timber which he had cut down and was in the act of transporting to market. If the timber had laid there in the woods and in the streams until the case ■was decided, same five years or more, it would have been completely lost. When the suit was decided, it was adjudged that the timber belonged to Bartram. He had from the beginning the right to move and sell it, but being prevented by the injunction, he would have lost the whole of its value but for the sale by the court. Or, if the timber had deteriorated in value, or in quantity so as to depreciate its value, the direct loss would have been the deterioration. As it was, his loss was the deterioration suffered between the time he was prevented from moving it, and its sale.

The plaintiff railroad company procured the timber to be sold pending the preparation of the case for trial. [104]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 S.W. 188, 141 Ky. 100, 1910 Ky. LEXIS 423, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bartram-v-ohio-big-sandy-r-r-kyctapp-1910.